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write-up/kultureflash_17.02.2007
Chris Bosse
PTW architect Chris Bosse likes bubbles. Already in 2002, in the Bubble-Highrise Berlin project (with Cologne-based SMO Architektur), he was squeezing bubbles of different sizes into a volume that was then sliced into a column-free structure. A similar strategy was employed for the fascinating Watercube, or National Swimming Center, in Beijing – a box of steel foam (an aggregation of bubbles) draped in a super-thin ETFE skin. Bosse’s Waterpavilion is a lightweight fabric construction based on the structure of the Watercube, with curves and the patterns of soap film surface tensions being derived from this most efficient subdivision of three-dimensional space. It’s all very Frei Otto, and Bosse has even been hailed as the leader of ‘bubbleism,’ a title he celebrated by designing the Moet Marquee in Melbourne: a pavilion that mimics the minimal surface tension of champagne bubbles. His Tsunami Memorial project for the victims of the seismic ocean waves that hit the shores in southern Thailand in December 2004, was yet a continuation of this ongoing interest in the genetic bubble form, which also permeated the cell-like structure of the Genetic Pavilion for the Seche Zollverein exhibition in Germany. An opportunity to find out whether you can smuggle a bottle of bubbles into the AA Lecture Hall.